Interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: All Those Who Challenge the Ruling Ideology, Are Called Facists – Herland Report

We had the privilege of a sit down with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, discussing why free speech is being shut down in America. Dr. Roberts is one of the leading political economists in the USA, awarded by the Treasury Department for “his outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy.” He is also the chairman of the Institute for Political Economy, a former Wall Street Journal editor and an author of many books. Dr. Roberts states:

It is a pity that free speech is becoming associated with Fascism. Because what free speech does is it lets you say something that challenges the ruling ideology. And they don’t want it challenged. So, to protect the ideology from challenge, they call the people telling the truth Fascists.
That lets them tell their lies. That’s the way it works. It is really what political correctness boils down to. They don’t care if their position is based in objective truth. For them, its an ideological thing, an emotional thing. And therefore, anything that challenges it, is wrong and evil. The favourite word for that is Fascism.

Hanne Nabintu Herland: – It’s such an honor to be with you, Sir, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. In Europe, we love you because you have a perspective that many do not have as you speak in broad manners about the important issues of foreign policy and the state of American culture today.

As an outsider to the American system, we wonder, how come your country seems to disintegrate from the traditional national unity regardless of ethnic origin to a divisive and fragmented society. For one, what happened to free speech?

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – You know, we have a situation now, where all kinds of people, whistle-blowers, truth tellers are called Fascists. We have in the United States a number of former CIA-officials who have turned whistleblowers and reveal what is actually going on, and they are called names.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – Instead of saying “look how brave they are telling the truth whilst taking all these risks”, they say “you can’t listen to him, he’s a Fascist”. Some of them have actually been beaten up in public meetings. They stand up and they ask the wrong question and they get beaten by police and dragged off.
This happened to Ray McGovern on several occations. Now, Ray McGovern was a CIA-official who, for years, gave the morning briefing to the president of the United States. Every morning. He was there, briefing the president on the latest information. He turned whistle-blower, he was in a meeting and asked a question not permitted and then was beaten up and dragged out of the room. And we know this just recently happened to him once again.
So, this is the sort of situation we are having. It reminds me of the Third Reich and the Germans during the second world war who fought the idea that one could still debate things. You can’t debate them.

Hanne Nabintu Herland: – The US seem to resemble more the old Soviet Union now, with strict censorship and propaganda media structures?

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – It is a major problem. Like whistle-blowers, the independent news organisations, like Wikileaks, and the leader of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has to live his life in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has asylum. If he steps out, the British will turn him over to us. He is not an American citizen, so he cannot possibly commit treason against the United States, yet that’s what they are going for.
So you can see that even the concept of law doesn’t mean anything anymore. What they really want is revenge on him. And all he did was publish documents that were leaked to him. Which of course is what newspapers used to do. For example, when the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers that were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg.
And what did the Pentagon Papers show? It showed that the Vietnam war was a total mess and that the American people had been greatly deceived and that the situation was anything but what they had been told and so on.
The New York Times is protected by the First Amendment. The New York Times today wouldn’t publish it anymore than they would publish anything that was leaked to Wikileaks. Because they now serve the ruling oligarchs. They don’t serve truth or people and they no longer have the function of holding government accountable.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – So, as we were saying earlier, if a democracy loses the media as a constraint on the government, then there is no way of holding the government accountable. And in the United States the government is not accountable. You know, we talked about it. They can detain you indefinitely despite the constitutional prohibition against it.
They can murder you without due process of law despite the constitutional prohibition against it. They can invade your privacy despite the constitutional prohibition against it. So we now have a lawless government that can’t be held accountable. And the people who tell on it, are prosecuted.

Hanne Nabintu Herland: – Yet, what we see today is the media take over the role of the judiciary, in several of the Me Too cases. A woman can just bring out any form of allegation, “this man looked at me in an improper way”, and due to allegations in the media the man loses his whole reputation and his job. You are defenseless against an unjust system, nobody waits until the case has been examined by a court of law. You are judged the instant the lady’s allegations are published.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – Yes, you are guilty by accusation. Now this can’t be done to victim groups. It can only be done to the oppressor group. To the white heterosexual male. You can’t treat homosexuals this way. You can’t treat women this way. You can’t treat blacks this way. So, this makes it very difficult for males anywhere to get in any kind of controversy. Because the minute you get in a controversy, they can bring somebody to make a charge against you. It doesn’t have to be true for it to stick.
You remember what they did to Dominique Strauss-Kahn?https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/11/25/dominique-strauss-kahns-concern-poor-got-destroyed-paul-craig-roberts/
He was the head of the International Monetary Fund. It was suspected that he would be the next president of France. He comes to New York for some reason and then you find out he’s accused of raping a maid in the hotel. And they make a big show letting him get on the airplane and then the police enter the airplane getting him off. So they put him in prison held on this charge. They then pronounce him guilty. And of course, all the feminists were absolutely convinced he was guilty and the newspapers treated it as if it had already been proved.
And it turns out it was all a hoax. Somehow this hotel maid had received large six figure-payments in her bank account. Finally, the New York prosecutor had to admit that it was all a mistake. They had to set him free. But of course, he had already resigned from IMF and of course he couldn’t participate in the French election and in the meantime, his enemies had arranged for several French women to state that he had raped them.
So, none of this was ever proven. But it was effective in getting rid of a threat. In the United States, they didn’t want Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be president of France. Because he, as the head of the IMF, had criticized the austerity that was being forced on poor countries like Greece and Portugal. It was austerity that did force many women into prostitution. And so here were the feminists helping the United States destroy the person who was opposed to the austerity policies that were forcing women into prostitution.

Hanne Nabintu Herland: – This kind of insinuation that any woman can come up with and that the words flowing out of her mouth are automatically pure truth. We see now men being removed from office on pure allegations, it hasn’t been looked at in any court of law. And the media seems to take the role of the judiciary as well.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: – Well, this happens to people. Anybody they want to get, they create charges. And the media convicts them. Now, I can remember in the United States, when media coverage of a case was enough to dismiss the case. Before, if the media covered anything they always had to say the “alleged crime”, the “suspect” etc.
They never could treat it as this was real or proven. That remained for the trial to decide. Now today, the trial takes place in the media. They are convicted in the media and they know they can’t get a fair trial. Where are they going to get a jury from? Because they have all read the newspapers or watched the case on TV. So, the accused has to make a plea bargain. And so, your lawyer negotiates a deal with the prosecutor in which you admit to some minor offence unrelated to the one you are charged with. So that the prosecutor can win the case and you can get off without heavy punishment.
It is very unfortunate. But you can see how this can make any male boss very reluctant to correct a female employee because she can retaliate with a charge. So it gives leeway to all kinds of people to do half-way jobs, show up late etc. It’s hard to correct. It’s the same case with blacks.
If you are white, you can’t correct them, because you will be called a racist. And so, in this way, you know the society gets stuck and loses its functionality. You have to tolerate things you shouldn’t have to tolerate because if you try to correct it, a charge will be made against you. All of this is part of the deterioration of not just the United States, but I think in the West generally.